ANNUAL REPORT 2020

IIUM Press | Annual Report 2020 _______________________________________________________________________________________ 6 OVERVIEW 2020 IIUM Press as the University publisher is one of the few sectors that one can imagine could stand to benefit from the pandemic crisis. With people staying at home with fewer distractions, they might have more time for books; however, it turns out that doesn’t necessarily translate into more book sales for publishers. They began asking how badly the crisis had hit the industry. And almost all book sales were online from outlets like Shopee, LAZADA and other marketplace platforms which inevitably favors a winner-takes-all publishing model. As a University publisher like ours, there’s been a short-term hit because we rely heavily on the direct books sale, dealing with a student, researchers and they were closed. Ahead of the Curve The crisis hit at a time when most publishers were already looking to build up their e-commerce business, and the book industry is probably ahead of the curve there compared to many retails players. But COVID-19 has been called “the Great Accelerator” and that’s true in the books business as much as anywhere else. People are buying more books online and once habits have changed, there’s no going back. What about E-Books? The sale of e-books has risen, but readers are creatures of habit, and the vast bulk of them still choose to have a physical book in their hands. It is changing, but not as fast as the movement to buying those books online. We’ve become an online business almost overnight. I’d say that’s the significant change. Now, the readers can buy IIUM Press eBook through www.OOKBEE.my . We are in the midst to uploading more eBooks in this platform in 2021. We hope that, with this digital version, IIUM Press could spreading the knowledge to the ummah and readers all over the world.